The rights-based approach aims at reducing the spread of the disease by providing basic rights to those who are most vulnerable to contracting the virus, writes Sachal Abbassi

The ’70s witnessed a rise of individualism, social progressive values and eventual fading away of the hippie movement, which was coincidently accompanied by the rise of one of the most fatal diseases—HIV/Aids, first discovered in Africa and soon became widespread across the world. Thereafter, different social and medical initiatives have been undertaken to reduce or possibly eliminate its contraction. To this day, however, no medical progress has been made to find a cure which can reverse affects of the HIV virus.

Previously, all grave illnesses, which posed extermination to civilisations, have been dealt with using social policy as opposed to the institution of medical science. Also, policy making has been ineffective in the past because of a variety of reasons that may include institutional denial, which most of the governments practice to avoid scrutiny, taboo and stigma associated with the disease. However, after realising the increasing death toll, they begin to acknowledge the grave social risks posed by Aids and took measures to undermine its spread transversely in the general population.

In the recent decade, a new policy framework has been devised to reduce HIV/Aids statistics. As opposed to the previous approaches, it does not entail any specific guidelines, but rather a set of principles which are extracted from fundamental human rights. The rhetoric behind such an approach is that HIV/Aids does not only originate from physiological contraction, but also socioeconomic dynamics.

Therefore, integrating human rights into its preventive measures as a social policy is imperative, so that those who are socially disadvantaged should have the necessary knowledge and skills to avoid contracting the disease. This method to Aids prevention is known as rights-based approach and it aims at reducing the spread of the virus by ensuring basic human rights to those who are most vulnerable to contracting the disease.

Reports by the United Nation programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation strongly suggest that especially in the developing world, people most vulnerable to the virus are those who are socially and economically disadvantaged. They are usually denied rights and liberties which prevent them from making consensual and informed life decisions. Such folks are also deprived of treatment and sometimes diagnosis of the virus, and by doing so, their life expectancy is short.

According to the UNAIDS, principles which this structure abides by consist of four important tenets which are derived from international human rights, good governance and social development frameworks. These four principles are universality, equality, inclusion and accountability. It is argued that if policy makers can integrate these principles within their framework, they can effectively reduce Aids and prevent future spread of the virus.

This pragmatic approach encompasses some important guidelines for policy making. It establishes that everyone should be able to know their HIV status, and to enable such an environment, clinics should be opened up in even the remote parts of the world to ensure that no one is denied the right to this information. It also ensures that treatment for HIV infection is provided to everyone, regardless of their identity or label.

Another policy principle is that it provides confidentiality to those who wish to receive test results or treatments. The intuition behind these operational guidelines is to provide necessary information, knowledge and skills to vulnerable populations. Not only these groups of people will be effective in reducing its contraction, but will also practise responsible citizenship and receive further acceptance from society.

HIV/Aids should not only be a problem confronting corporate medical research, rather a social issue which affects not only life expectancy, but also the standard of living of our future generations. By providing basic rights to vulnerable segments of population, the disease can indeed be contained.